But let me refresh your memories, anyway...... You crash into whatever is heading in your direction. So now, I need to pay for the other guy's damage, and then deal with mine. For all you rubber-neckers, pictures in the next few weeks. One pop-up headlight is crushed, the other, while not damaged, is possibly also junk. Hood is up. Sheet that has hood latch is bent. Hood seems salvagable. Doors both have even space to their respective front fenders and rear fenders. Heavy bar behind bumper is not great. Both fenders need a replacement. Bumper eggshell is toast. Bumper skin would still be good if I hadn't ripped it off in anger. Engine works. Radiator doesn't leak. A.C. still has gas. Car drove from where flat-bed dropped it off in front of house to my garage 100 feet away. Road was slick from a constant drizzle, and that was most certainly a contributing factor. From the damage, could not have been going more than 10-15 mph. Very pissed-off over it, to be sure. As I said, pics will be posted eventually. And I want to thank you all for the help given throughout the years. Seth

Seth,

Im glad your okay man, sorry to hear about the car! I know the feeling of anger man, My mom wrecked my 91 camaro in 07, It was the last one in the drive and she just had to go to the post office to mail her house payment, she just couldnt wait til the next day too, well i was dirty from working on her 87 firebird (Starter) and had been drinking i was under the her firebird when my wife came out and said honey dont get pist off please but how can i no when you see your most prized car that you take so much care of and hard work into it looking like this






Man i was so heated, dude blew a stop sign and when i say blew im talking 35 MPH t-boned her, she spun out almost nailing a telephone pole, cops come dude has no license, driving his moms piece of crap volkswagon jetta, and her insuarence dosnt cover him, not only was i PO about my car being totaled she tells me that, she had a all wood porch i punched that thing so hard it shifted about 2 inches and i ripped off her screen door! So i know how you feel man! Will check out the pics on it once you get them up!

Chris

Ooops...at least it sounds like the car isn't too bad though.

I now see 1st-hand what a crush-zone is.
The other guy's Chrysler certainly survived better than my car.
I hit him just behind his front wheel, and at most he needs a fender, a door patch, and a wheel suspension part or two, as the wheel is tilted down-ward.
The side of the car is made to resist impact, the front is made to give.

MY CAR WAS A 26-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN. NO DAMAGE OR PAINT OR BONDO.

Now I can have that drink.

Seth

I hate to say this but it's just a car and at least there wasn't any serious injuries

also, sorry about your car

yea my 89 was a virgin untill a female drive backed into it.....

well i got the dent almost all the way out but it will still need some filler, o well it happens, but either way i would be mad

Some guy blows a stop sign & hits your mom in your car.....
Its HIS fault, not hers......
So you tear her door off her house & mess up her porch?

Despite his insurance not covering him, you can still file a Civil Lawsuit on him, for the car. The house is on you to fix.

LOL I know, i did do just that, his moms insuarence paid the price for the car that i paid which was $2700 so i bought her a new screen door! (Sorry forgot to put that) but as far as her porch it still has a little tilt to it but it is okay! LOL)

I could not sleep.

My agreement with the other guy is to meet him at the shop to which he had his towed, and agree to a price - Friday afternoon. Because a stop sign is a stop sign, of course.

I must obviously make him sign a release-from-further-liabilities-of-any-kind type of hand-written letter.

Unfortunately, the cop took it upon herself to write a report, in spite of the fact that neither of us wanted it. She decided that she had no time for us to decide on that for ourselves.
What a c***.

You can only imagine what I think of cops.

It is good for my records that I took a safe-driving course just two weeks ago.

Seth

my ex girlfriend is a cop now, dang i guess my psychotic behavoir did that to her. the thing about female cops, is 9/10 of them have daddy issues and 9/10 are really just a wanna be dude going out for other peoples acceptance. she broke it off cause i never called her. hence i was too busy with my real babe, (trans am) well the day after my car took a crap for 2 1/2 years she broke it off completely. hahha, still to this day, ill hang with my babe(trans am) over a lady anyday. Its just so awesome to stare and work on my ride, its awesomeness i live in CALI, and its over 100 degrees in the garage, i dont care, a pack of beer, Gatorade and energy drink keeps me going. but im thinking about insulating the garage and adding a 10,000 btu air conditioning unit. i only have a 5 hour window in the morning to work on her. until its hot. but back to the damage accidents. when i bought the car, the driver side fender/ bumper and been smashed kinda in. but its still the fastest slowest computer controlled engine out there. I just got the radiator installed after the floor was covered in coolant when the other radiator blew a fat leak. on top of that i had a stripped transmission flare nut, so i had to cut the tubing a foot away and plumb new line with a brass compression union. everything is tits now. but man. my ex moved back, i think she wants me back. but im too much of a bad boy for her..

The good news is that my insurance will pay for the other car's repair, as well as a rental for it's owner.

The bad news is that two above average in quality shops do not even want to touch my car- site un-seen.

They both say that:
1-Quality non-China parts are unavailable.
2-Front-damage repair on unit-body is no cheap or easy task.

Also, neither wants to chance a front-clip, which would most-probably be rusty or all-bondo.

Thoughts?

Seth

Hey, try doing it yourself. im serious. its really not that hard. Ok its hard work, but i think you can do it. I recommend a GM master manual "big book". has every labeled part and screw and diagrams of where what goes. if its just the body, then ya, i have great confidence that youll achieve your goal. and tell those body shops to suck it. Please "dont be mad, get glad." "whats that", "oh that?....that the money you could be saving on auto repair." if you lived by me, id hand you a cutting wheel power tool and we'd cut everything thats bent off, and slap new body parts on, then primer. BAM the BABES be hella jocking

If you've got a mig welder or know someone who does, fix it yourself. Pics would help determine the extent of the damage and how fixable it is of course. I bought my Camaro off a friend after he wrecked it. He fell asleep at the wheel and took out a mailbox and hit a telephone pole. I have pics of it being delivered in my VBgarage. Had to remove the entire front sheet metal and the driver's side wheel well and weld a new piece in. You have to drill out all the spot welds holding the pieces together and then make sure everything is PERFECTLY lined up before you start welding back together. Take measurements of everything from any angle you can on a junkyard car that has a straight front clip and make sure your car measures the same before welding it back together. I got mine almost perfect. I say almost because even though everything fits and measures out right, I can't quite get the front end alignment to factory spec. I think I might have a bent control arm on the driver's side.

It's doable if you have the time and the patience. My car took just under a year with me working on it about 10 hours a week and I spent 2 months of that learning to weld.

As soon as I have a bit of time, snapping a roll of film will become the priority.
Right now, I need to buy a car [probably a tank of a Grand Marquis], to use.

Took a quick look this A.M., without popping the stuck hood.
Impact was not uniform. Right of my bumper touched other car before left.
Left box frame and left end of top radiator support are almost decent.
Right box frame was not as lucky. Pushed several inches in. Radiator and condenser have top canted inward. Battery is struggling for space.
I can and have fixed almost anything man-made, but this does appear, as you have admitted, to be a difficult project.
Once I get a 2nd car, I will turn my attention to this.
Not to shock you, but how do you feel about a newish 4th-Gen to replace my dear 3rd-Gen, if a repair does not or can not pan out?

Seth

Interesting Edit: I once had a 10+ MPH header in my Triumph TR-7 convertible, in a parking garage.
Destroyed the entire side of a full-size Buick in the trunk area. Collapsed his fender, popped his trunk lid, narrowed the width of the Buick by many inches.
My Triumph sustained NO damage at all. Nothing visible. Nothing hidden. Why such a descrepancy in damage? The TR-7 was only 2,300 pounds, but an obvious Golliath amongst cars large or small.
Is GM such inferior ****? Even with crumple-zones, shouldn't my Firebird have held up as well as the little British car?

Older cars didnt have these crumple zones, so no. They're supposed to absorb force, and if you're uninjured they did just that.

But I feel your pain. Still deciding if its worth repairing.

i dont recommend getting a Cher, she rides kinda loose. but i personally, had a Toyota Corolla 2001 LS, and as much as im against foriegn brand, i can tell you, that car was awesome. im thinking about getting another one, but i cant sell out like that. Driving a third gen is tight and all, but man, sometimes i dont want the attention, and i have a heart attack everytime i get that feeling of someone maybe scratching it, or egging it. I think next to the third gens, a MONTE CARLO all black w/chrome trim is tight. but around where i live (CALI) Toyota is taking over... I will fight the stereo types in general, and drive my 3rd gen until i die. but a BMW is the best foreign car in my opinion. I had the opportunity to drive one, and yea, theyre pretty sick.

Sorry about the crash, glad you are okay and it was not too serious.. (Except the damage you just talked about.. that really does suck.. I would be too tempted to just fix it but parting it out and starting a fresh car would be easier..)

The real reason I quoted this is I did just that, put my project 3rd gen on hold so I could go bigger (Pro-street bigger) and got a 1999 Black Z28 M6 so I had a DD.

While the F-body feel is there, you know its not a 3rd gen... and if you really like 3rd gens then you will just want to go right back to it.

And then the engine bay. God. I like being able to open my hood and see my engine. Not half an engine and half cowl. (Exaggeration... )

But I will stand by they are damn nice cars. I went a few months without driving an F-Body and I felt right at home when I got in. Steering wheel is right in the lap, power seat if you get it is nice (mine makes me think I am sitting high though.. I want to get rid of it.) dash is nice. For some people I guess it was a plus to go from the pull knob to a switch for the lights.. I think it was a step backwards LOL! Back on the dash, it feels more solid and not like its gonna break if you touch it lol. Extremely easy platform to make HP out of (Engine wise.) but if you just wanted a DD, which is why I have mine, they are perfect. Sound takes a little to get use to.


If I could go back, I don't think I would change my mind on my purchase to a 3rd gen.. not even for an 01 or 02 Z28 either. I will take my more aggressive cam and I will just swap out for an LS6 intake... but the 4th gen is extremely nice.

I think a properly shocked/strutted/springs/read suspensioned/clean interior/400RWPH/whatever the hell you can think of to make a good car 3rd gen would be a LOT more fun for DDing than a 4th gen with the above though.


(EDIT: The reason I did not mention tightness of turning and everything is I had an RS that was completely stock and this new Z28 has shocks.. it's kinda unfair, this 4th gen is sick around a corner.)
Another reason I went with a 4th gen is I want a complete collection.

Yesterday evening, I made a nice post praising the 3rd-gen design.
Dissappeared.
Administrator did it for whatever reason.
But I need to repeat some of it.

I went out to buy a red 2002 Trans Am.
Car is spectacular.
But because of the dash protruding so far into the car, getting in and out was a chore. Not a car for me or even my skinny girlfriend.
Third Gens are more roomy, more comfortable and I miss the old beast. I now see why there is such a strong love for 3rd-Gens.
So I bought an '04 GTO instead.
So powerful is the 5.7, that you may get sucked through the rear window when the gas is nailed.

Seth